Hertfordshire University Business School

Age: 30.

History: Originally established in 1952 as a technical college for the de Havilland Aircraft Company, most of its early courses related directly to engineering. A business degree was launched in 1965, and the business school was set up in 1978. In 2003, it moved to the swish new £120m de Havilland campus in Hatfield.

Address: The Hertfordshire town of Hatfield, only 20 minutes by train from central London.

Ambience: The campus offers state-of-the-art teaching, learning, sports and leisure facilities. It has smart en-suite accommodation for 1,600 students with broadband and wireless internet access, and a library and computer centre open 24/7.

Vital statistics: A large business school with 3,200 students - a fifth are postgraduates. There are 21 single honours bachelor's degrees available, and a joint honours degree at undergraduate level. The school offers a full-time and part-time MBA, management programmes and 21 masters degrees including accounting, finance, e-business, international business, human resource management, employment relations, marketing, information systems, management science, operational research, project management and tourism. It also offers a doctor of management, a PhD programme, and a doctorate in business administration (DBA). Phew.

Added value: Strong research centres in complexity, finance and accounting, employment studies, and institutional economics. Hertfordshire also boasts very strong links with a range of companies and places a strong emphasis on the employability of its students. More than 250 of them are on work placements every year – this figure is rising annually – going against the national trend. Typical placement employers include American Express, British Airways, British Energy, Debenhams, Esso, Ford, Jaguar, HSBC, IBM, Marks and Spencer, Reuters, Tesco, Walt Disney Company and Xerox.

Easy To Get In To? The ratio of applications to acceptance is 6:1. You need a good honours degree for postgraduate entry, and at least three years' management experience for the MBA.

Glittering alumni: Sanjeev Bhaskar, of TV series Goodness Gracious Me.

Gurus: Has 200 academic members of staff including Professors Ralph Stacey, director of the complexity and management centre; Geoff Hodgson, director of the centre for institutional economics; Gregor Gall, director of the centre for research in employment studies, and Colin Haslam, director of centre for research in finance and accounting.

International connections: The school has almost 50 partner universities and business schools in Europe, North America, Australasia and south-east Asia. A third of its students come from overseas, and a further 2,500 are studying abroad with collaborative partners in Canada, China, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Malaysia.

Teaching: Rated by QAA as "excellent" for teaching quality in 2001.

Student profile: The age range on the part-time MBA is 24-40, on the full-time it's 23-35.

Cost: For the full-time MBA, it's £9,500 for UK and EU students or £12,500 for others; the part-time option is £11,040 for UK and EU students.

Return on investment: Improved career prospects and enhanced leadership potential.

Who's the boss? Julie Newlan is the dean of the school.

Prospectus: +44 (0)1707 284800; www.herts.ac.uk/business; admissions@herts.ac.uk